Vol. 1 No. 3
Free to Every Home and Business Every Month
February 1, 2011
Commuters Give Mixed Reviews on MBTA's Quiet Car
Family Has No Stomach for Cancer Genetic Testing Saves Walsh Family Further Suffering BY J.D. O’GARA People pay tribute in a variety of ways. When a blue dumpster with pink lettering turned up at Lacroix’ s Corner in Millis, that it was a memorial to a lost loved one was clear. Franklin resident Michael Walsh, who, with his brother David, of Millis, owns Hopedale-based Metropolitan Removal, had placed the makeshift billboard to honor the memory of his beloved mother, Mary Walsh. The pink lettering on the dumpster did more than simply memorialize Mrs. Walsh, who passed in November; it directed readers to an organization called No Stomach for Cancer. The dumpster, it turns out, was a small part of a much bigger family story. Four years ago to the day Mary Walsh passed from colon cancer, she and her family had lost her son Steve to a terrible bout with stomach cancer. Steve was just 46, leaving a wife and three children. Walsh herself had fought cancer in the past, and with the advice of a physician, she began to explore her family’s peculiar history of gastric-related malignancy and considered genetic
BY ANNE PARKER
Mom, Kathy, Beth & Mike: Here, Mary Walsh, center, is shown with the three of her children who inherited the CDH1 gene mutation, which gives them a 75% chance of developing stomach cancer. When all three had their stomachs removed, cancerous cells were found in post-op biopsies. Surrounding Mary, from left, Kathy Flores, Michael Walsh and Beth Lambert.
counseling. Walsh’s own father, uncle and cousin had succumbed to stomach cancer, all at relatively young ages. According to a recent article in Mass. General Magazine (“When There’s Cancer in the Family”), five to 10 percent of cancers are
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hereditary, meaning that patients have a genetic mutation that predisposes them to the disease. Genetic testing indeed did find that Mary had a genetic mutation called CDH1, also known as Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer Syndrome (HGDC). Accord-
ing to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), about three out of four CDH1 gene mutation carriers will go on to develop gastric cancer, with the average age of diagnosis 38.
Listen. It's the sound of the morning train rumbling into the Forge Park MBTA station, the blast of the horn as it enters the station, maybe the bell will clang. Commuters on the platform shuffle their feet, collect their bags and books, carry coffee and cell phones, and the sound of their chatter continues. They step up into the commuter train and find their seats. They say hello to their fellow commuters. The train conductor will eventually come along and make his or her way through the car, greeting commuters, collecting their fare and hand them their travel ticket. Hear the thunder of the engine car pushing train and travelers toward Boston and all the stops in between. Then it becomes quiet. Hopefully.
NO STOMACH continued on page 4
QUIET CAR continued on page 2
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